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Savannah fairground shooting reward tripled

Cate Mafera/Savannah Morning News Exchange Club President Chris Hafer announces their $5,000 donation to CrimeStoppers to use as a reward for information in Saturday's fairground shootings.

The Exchange Club of Savannah, organizer of the annual Coastal Empire Fair, presented a $5,000 check Wednesday to CrimeStoppers to use in finding information in the fairgrounds shooting investigation.

Chris Hafer, fair president, said he hopes the money can be used to find whoever is responsible for the shooting that left seven people injured on Saturday night at the Coastal Empire Fairgrounds. The money came from ticket sales, he said.

“This was the 63rd annual fair and we’ve never had anything like this to happen before,” Hafer said. “Obviously we want a safe and wholesome event. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”

The Exchange Club’s contribution brings the total reward money for information leading to a suspect arrest to $7,500, said Savannah-Chatham police spokesman Julian Miller.

Miller said Wednesday that the department’s investigation of the shooting is ongoing.

Two sites have been set up for fairgoers who may have been in a position to take videos at the fair just prior to, during, and/or just after the shootings to share those videos. They can be emailed to Metro Criminal Investigations as an attachment to video@savannahga.gov. Or they can be sent to CrimeStoppers by downloading the TipSubmit app for iPhone and Android.

Demery Bishop, executive director of CrimeStoppers Savannah, said his organization has received a few anonymous calls so far regarding the case.

“Hopefully this will certainly assist in solving this case,” he said of the club’s donation.

Taking a stand

Young people were invited to speak out on the subject of youth-related violence at a youth summit on Wednesday afternoon organized by the Chatham County Youth Commission.

Two dozen student members of the commission, a youth development program, attended the summit. Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson, Chatham Commission Chairman Pete Liakakis, Police Chief Willie Lovett, Savannah-Chatham schools Police Chief Ulysses Bryant and other law enforcement officers attended. Youth from around the county were invited.

Jackson — who has made passionate calls for justice in recent days — informed the young people that officials know, through Internet and social media chatter, that many teens were aware beforehand that “something was going to go down there at the fairground.” She encouraged, and at one point begged, anyone with information to share it with police or CrimeStoppers.

“It’s sad that you as young people cannot go to a public place and not feel safe,” said Jackson, who has met with the shooting victims.

“When a parent has to make a decision about whether they’re going to have surgery provided for their child because of where the bullet is lodged or if they’re going to have to let the child see if he or she can coexist with the bullet — that is not a decision that parents should have to make.”

Liakakis pledged the commission’s support in helping find whoever is responsible and called for more mentors in the community, especially for children of single mothers.

The commission encouraged the youth to discuss their thoughts about the shooting and what can be done to curb violence. Most of the students were apprehensive about speaking. Several of them acknowledged they were at the fairgrounds when the shooting occurred.

Jayla Diggs asked the law enforcement officials why fairgoers weren’t searched at the entrance to the event. But Lovett said a firearm still could have been handed from one person to another through the perimeter of the fairgrounds.

“We’ve got to find a way to make the fair safe,” he said. “But metal detectors are not the solution because there’s no way with an open area like that you can detain anybody.”

Amanda King, a Memorial Day School 10th grader, said her neighbor’s brother was Michael Biancosino, one of two people found dead in a crashed car after being shot in September. She said she believes problems that lead to violence must be dealt with at an early age.